All's well at Rio Concho?

Published 5:55 pm, Saturday, July 17, 2010

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All's well at Rio Concho?

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After almost four days without it, the water is running again at Rio Concho Mobile Home Park.

Part-time park manager Tim Wells told the Herald on Saturday afternoon that the City of Plainview turned the water at the park located north of Westgate on the Dimmitt Highway back on sometime after he went to work at his full-time job at Wal-Mart Distribution Center on Friday afternoon.

"Whenever I got home at 1 (a.m. Saturday), I had water," Wells said.

The water was turned off around 8:40 a.m. Tuesday due to thousands of dollars of unpaid water bills. Wells confirmed what some residents said, that the amount due the city was roughly $12,000.

David Ott of Malibu, Calif., one of the owners of the park, did not specify the amount when contacted by the Herald earlier in the week. He said then that if several Rio Concho residents would pay their $150 lot fees, the bill would get paid.

Wells said he took "several cashier's checks" to the city in the past several days.

"I took down personally almost $6,000," Wells said.

Meanwhile, Ott - whose bankruptcy claim apparently was denied by the courts late last month - was to wire the rest of the money that Wells said was pooled together from funds at other parks owned by Ott and his partners.

Although city officials were not available for comment Saturday, Wells thought the entire bill was now paid.

"The city told us the amount had to be paid in full before they would turn the water back on," said Wells.

He said most of the park's 40 tenants - many of whom are elderly and disabled - are current on their lot fees.

"Some paid before and some paid after the water was turned off, but at least most of them have paid, finally," he said, adding that "a little rift" developed between residents who did pay and those who didn't and that "public embarrassment" helped spur some to pay.

As for residents who still haven't paid, "we may have to take some to court," Wells said.

It's not the first time the water has been turned off at Rio Concho. According to one resident, it's happened three or four times in the three years she's lived there, although for only a few hours each time.

Aware the water would likely be turned off Tuesday after the city posted notices several days before, many residents washed clothes and filled water bottles before the lines went dry.

That's what the 49-year-old Wells, who also lives in the park, did. He said he used "bottled-up water" to bathe and also took alcohol baths "like they do in the hospital.

"I was not concerned for my own behalf. I figured I could survive (up to) three weeks (without running water)," he said. "My concern was for the elderly and families with young kids."

Wells said it appeared everyone made it through the dry spell OK.

"We had a few of the elderly who did suffer a little bit, but I think everybody has pulled through with flying colors," he said.

Now that the water is running again, Wells plans to begin addressing other issues at the park, including tall weeds and an unsafe swimming pool, now filled with unsanitary rain water.

"As soon as it gets dried out a little bit more, I'm going to try to knock down the mowing, as much as I can do," he said.

But Wells, who said he has three garden tractor mowers, said it's a difficult job to maintain "over 10 acres" of property.

"There's no way to keep up with that by yourself unless you have big equipment. As many empty lots as we've got, my mowers are not big enough to do it."

He said not quite 40 families live at Rio Concho, which has spaces for 100 homes. Wells said the park was almost completely full in the mid-1970s, and there were still 60-65 homes around the time he moved there in 1994.

"Over the last 15 years it's slowly dwindled," he said.

Wells said besides a couple of residents, most are staying at Rio Concho - even after the problems with the water.

"One woman is going to Chicago (for medical reasons), and one renter is moving out, but she was having trouble paying (her rent) anyway," he said. "Several are moving from one house to another, but everybody else, to my knowledge, is staying put. "

As for the swimming pool, Wells admitted it's a "health hazard.

"The pool needs some repair work, and the fence needs some repair."

Wells said he's pumped water out of the pool, but recent rains have begun filling it up again.

"We have a cover for it, but because the fence is down I'm hesitant to put it on . . . because some kids might go out on it and (the cover) could collapse and they might be hurt. I feel it's safest to be left open.

"The owners are supposed to be working on it, but it's going to take some time. With the park borderline breaking event, it's not going to be done overnight."

Wells said he has treated the water in the pool to try to control the mosquitoes, and an unnamed city official - while unable to actually spray inside the park because it's private property - agreed to spray nearby so the drift might help control the mosquito population.

Wells, who has served as park manager for going on five years, hopes he can be paid his salary, saying he's owed money for this month and last. He said "proceeds from the sale of a couple of homes" served as his salary in past months.

"But I didn't take the job out here for the money," he said. "I took it to make the place better."

(Contact Kevin Lewis at 806-296-1353 or kwlewis@hearstnp.com. Follow him on Facebook.)